Arjun Dev Arora, the founder and CEO of ReTargeter, is trying to take conversion to the next level with his rapidly-growing venture. Yes, that’s right! ReTargeter is all about getting the “gone-visitors” back to your website by following-up with them across the web.
Being a third-generation-entrepreneur, it did not take much time for Arjun to understand entrepreneurship and how a simple idea can be evolved into a great business. However, before getting on board with his own venture – ReTargeter, Arjun lead the Business Development for Yahoo! Real Estate and has also been a consultant to many M&A deals and IPOs for a lot of technology companies. Being an adviser to many silicon valley companies just adds more experience to his resume and makes him someone who can be considered to be highly credible when it comes to learning from.
In this interview with Foundora, Arjun gives out his insights about the advantages of lean startup, leveraging on interns, being scrappy and speaks exclusively about ReTargeter.
Interview Overview:
Please tell us something about who you are; what’s your entrepreneurial background and how did you get started with ReTargeter?
My name is Arjun Dev Arora and I am the CEO of ReTargeter, an online advertising technology startup focused on ReTargeting. ReTargeter was started in May 2009 and is growing quickly. Prior to this, I was the Head of Biz Dev for Yahoo! Real Estate, and I was in investment banking at Jefferies Broadview before that. I started ReTargeter after leaving Yahoo and with the help of some great angel investors.
ReTargeter is an outstanding idea; how did it strike your mind? What exactly happened that made you start ReTargeter?
During my time at Yahoo!, I saw the potential in ReTargeting. Structural changes at Yahoo! encouraged me to leave and pursue my goal of starting my own company, but actually realizing the opportunity in the ReTargeting field at Yahoo! pushed me to act on my dreams. I knew that I could develop my own product based around this awesome technology which had been around for several years but only available for Fortune 500 customers and was very limited in scope. Starting ReTargeter was something that I had been ready for all along, but it was just a matter of doing it.
How does the ReTargeter System work and how do you help clients monetize the traffic they get?
ReTargeter is effectively a platform for engagement that allows advertisers to stay in front of their customers after those customers leave a clients site. By having an advertiser place a piece of code on their website, a cookie is dropped on their customers computers. Our technology allows us to serve ads to the pool of cookied users, but there is never and transfer of personally identifiable data. As the customers surf around the web and the ads show up they are keeping the brand top of mind. The ads help the site monetize their audience whether it is through online sales, leads or offline purchases.
A quick tip on how to make the most out of ReTargeter to the advertisers?
ReTargeting is an awesome tool for getting your brand in front of the people you care about, but its value as a driver of conversions is very dependent on the advertiser’s conversion funnel. We strongly encourage advertisers to A/B test creatives with us, as well as A/B test landing pages on their end.
ReTargeter shows ads on a lot of popular websites across the Internet; was it difficult to buy ad space in such popular websites? Simply put; how did you manage to buy the ad inventory considering that you are bootstrapped?
A lot of work was initially put into developing relationships with large ad exchanges and networks. It was all a matter of working toward getting in front of the right people, and displaying the value of the vision to them.
You started pretty lean; and you mentioned in couple of interviews that your MVP was a set of open source tools glued together; How exactly has being lean helped you? Were there any disadvantages? And, what learning did you derive out of the experience?
Staying lean and utilizing open source tools helped us heavily cut down on the cost of enterprise software, and the open products function surprisingly well. The one downside is the lack of customer service, but because we’re so lean, ReTargeter is able to pivot quickly and utilize different sources to overcome obstacles. In terms of learnings, this approach was incredible for us as it allowed us to drive revenue and profitability quickly.
Apparently, you spent very little on marketing and instead used guerrilla marketing tactics to reach out. Can you elaborate a bit on it?
Something that makes ReTargeter great as a service is its value as a ‘Brand Scaler,’ or something that can make you look bigger than you are to your audience. We use our own solution, but we also utilize social media and encourage customer referrals to help us get our name out there more. With that, we focus a lot of our marketing efforts on the high-volume/low-cost channels. This includes content creation, email marketing, Twitter, and developing relationships influencers in particular industries. The hard work put into this helps us reach a very relative audience without spending a lot of money. Additionally, we’re always looking for interesting ways to get ReTargeter’s name out there at a discount. The most recent example was a bust stop shelter ad in an affluent SF area that we were able to put up after winning an auction.
You also brought-in interns to work for ReTargeter; tell us something about what shall startups do to be benefited from these students? What do start-ups have to keep in mind while dealing with them?
Having an intern is a mutually beneficial relationship between the student and the company. We’re able to give the student real work experience, and being that we are a startup, the student will gain a lot of experience in a short amount of time. Additionally, if an intern is able to prove his/her worth, we’re always opening to bringing the student on full-time.
If you don’t waste their time, they won’t waste yours.
You have talked about how a startup can be lean by being scrappy; but the question is how scrappy can you get? How do you realize what to organize and what can be left unorganized?
Being lean doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be scrappy. Being scrappy is about not paying for anything unless it is absolutely necessary; it involves creativity and research. Scrappiness allows us to move quickly given the changes that are always occurring in the industry.
You are a third generation entrepreneur. Is there something you learnt from your father and grandfather that helped in your business?
I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and the two main things that I learned was efficiency from my dad, and developing strong relationships from my grandfather. My younger brother also started a company and I am continually impressed and inspired by his hustle.
Finally, do you have any advice for our readers or aspiring entrepreneurs?
My suggestion for aspiring entrepreneurs – Just do it. The worst thing that can happen is that you will learn an incredible amount about yourself and a particular industry.
